Farid Hafez

He is a member of the Affiliated Faculty of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) at University of California, Berkeley and member of the international advisory board at Georgetown University’s 'The Bridge Initiative', which deals with issues around Islamophobia and diversity and is led by John L. Esposito. He is also Affiliated Faculty and Scholars-member of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and the editor of numerous works on Islamophobia.

Shortly before submitting his dissertation, in which he analyzed parliamentary debates on the ban of mosques and minarets in two Austrian counties, he published his first book ‘Islamophobia in Austria’ together with Middle East scholar John Bunzl. The book was awarded the prestigious Bruno-Kreisky-Anerkennungspreis of the Dr. Karl-Renner-Institut for the political book of the year 2009.

During the academic year 2016/17, he is Fulbright-Botstiber Visiting Professor of Austrian-American Studies at UC Berkeley. Hafez had taught at the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Vienna as well as at the University of Klagenfurt. Hafez publishes regularly in Austrian and international news media like Der Standard and Die Presse and is interviewed by news media such as The Washington Post.

Hafez was a guest lecturer at University of Istanbul, Istanbul 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, Columbia University in New York. As a visiting lecturer, he taught hip hop at the University of Chicago, Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Queensborough Community College in New York, City University of New York, and the Amerika Haus in Vienna. He also teaches at a number of academic non-universitarian institutions such as the Global Citizenship Alliance [28]. In 2015, he was part of the faculty of The Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship and many other institutions. Hafez also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Austrian-American History.

Since then, Hafez is known for his work on Islamophobia. In 2010, he founded the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook In 2015, he created the European Islamophobia Report, which he now edits along with political scientist Enes Bayrakli for the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, based in Ankara, Istanbul, Cairo and Washington DC.

From 2008 to 2010, Hafez did research at the Department of Law of Religion and Culture at the University of Vienna, before he started teaching at the Muslim Teachers Training College in Vienna (2009 to 2014). In 2014, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University.

Farid Hafez (born 23 December 1981) is an Austrian political scientist, currently teaching and doing research at the Political Science Department at the University of Salzburg.

Hafez was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria on 23 December 1981. After moving to the capital city Vienna, taking his first degree in political science, he finished his studies and earned his PhD at University of Vienna in 2009.